A couple days ago I was randomly struck by the memory of a short story my class studied in English several years ago.
It was one of those dys-topic texts that leaves you gasping for reality. Harrison Bergeron by Kurt Vonnugut Jr. is based in a world, where everyone has been "made equal" through handicaps.
Those who are better than average in appearance must wear hideous masks, those who are strong are forced to wear sandbags to hinder their movements and those with a brain capable of any form of deep thought are required to wear a radio attached to their ear.
Love, beauty, skill and achievement are viewed with suspicion and jealously - they are seen as social and political threats, stains on society that must be dealt with like a disease.
Well thank goodness we don't live in that world... eh?
Yet, it occurred to me how we may have more in common with this horrible existence than we would like to believe, specifically in terms of a thought disrupter.
One just has to go on the bus or walk on some campus to notice practically everyone is plugged into their music player in one form of another. That, and every student I know (including myself) will readily admit to keeping Facebook, Twitter or Tumblr open in their browser while doing homework, just so we can check for new notifications every once in a while.
Ok, so we're good at splitting our attention. Just because we would sometimes rather listen to music than put up with silence or the noisy bustle of an environment doesn't mean we aren't capable of thinking.
There have been a lot of articles written about multi-tasking and the appearance of attention deficit disorders, and lack of focus in youth today. It is a problem that, to be honest, kind of scares me. Like the short story, these intermittent checks can prevent us from really, truly thinking about anything beyond the surface.
Depth of analysis, depth of character, and depth of personality, are called so for a reason. It requires the effort of digging. And this digging is nearly impossible when there is always a distraction to draw us away the moment before we stick the shovel in the ground. Everyone is always plugged in. Why?
I mean, thank goodness we're not wearing masks and sandbags, right?
